Although the world's attention is focused on the Gulf of Mexico due to the current oil spill, this is not the first time oil has flowed into pristine waters. In 1978, Amoco's tanker Cadiz caused what was at the time, the world's worst oil spill off of the Britanny coast.. The tanker's entire load of 1,619,048 barrels spilled into the the sea, devastating wildlife on land and sea. The local economy is based upon shellfish and oysters. The thick pudding-like mixture of oil and water is literally choking the livelihoods of generations of fisherman. While lessons were learned regarding how to contain a spill (dispersants, booms, etc.), tragedy struck again off Britanny's coast in 1999. The tanker Erika greatly impacted nature as its 25,000 ton load killed or injured roughly 300,000 birds.
While the spills that were caused by the Cadiz and the Erika were catastrophic, the Deepwater Horizon disater is far worse. We are now dealing with an unlimited source of oil and gasses spilling into the Gulf of Mexico with containment measure working poorly.
A 987 foot ship was loaded with 53,094,5 10 gallons (1,264,155 barrels) of North Slope crude oil bound for Long Beach, California.
Exxon Valdez grounded at Bligh Reef, rupturing eight of its 11 cargo tanks and spewing some 10.8 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound
No human lives were lost as a direct result of the disaster, though four deaths were associated with the cleanup effort.
The human and natural losses were immense-to fisheries, subsistence livelihoods, tourism and wildlife
While the spills that were caused by the Cadiz and the Erika were catastrophic, the Deepwater Horizon disater is far worse. We are now dealing with an unlimited source of oil and gasses spilling into the Gulf of Mexico with containment measure working poorly.
SPILL: The wreck of the Exxon Valdez
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